Every week the NextNYers
video series features an interview with entrepreneurs
building companies in the New York area. This week's show
features Camlink, an online
speed dating service.

It was a decent interview. But the host, Courtney Nichols, asked
one question that troubled me. She wanted to know what sort of
market research the company had done. My question: What
worthwhile Web service does market research?

In the Web world, the devil is in the experience. Who would have
thought that Facebook would have been able to come into the
market so strongly and to catch up to or beat MySpace? On paper,
it wouldn't have been compelling.

The only thing you could have perhaps determined from market
research is whether people want to connect with each other. But
the truth is it's like asking someone if they would prefer Coke
with lemon or lime when they haven't tried either. You can ask
people if they like lemon. You can ask if they like lime. You can
even ask if they get thirsty. But the only way to know what they
really are going to like is to observe their behavior after
trying both.

In this case, I don't think there is much question that there is
a demand or need for tools to help people find dates, partners,
or spouses. Will their particular approach work? I don't know.
And I don't think any market research would tell me in advance.

OK: So how do you determine whether there's a market for your Web
service? I think the best way is to solve a problem you
personally relate to. Obviously, you're also going to need some
combination of insight, luck, and execution as well -- all things
market research won't help with.

For developers doing consumer web products, doing pre-launch
market research surveys -- or anything other than basic useage
testing -- is a silly exercise. And post-launch, real market
reaction is the only research you can really trust.